Canon camera and service.

Rich wrote:
On Thu, 27 Oct 2005 14:14:14 GMT, 223rem wrote:


Joseph Chamberlain, DDS wrote:

[bs snipped]

Pretty good troll!


Very low calibre response.

Low caliber (223!) but bull's eye.

Canon like any other manufacturer, cannot guarantee the state of a
product after it leaves there factory.

Canon control the length of time it takes a unit to be sold or the
'newness' of a product.

I expect they have no way to differentiate a $1,000 350D to a $10,000
1DS... it's all a serialised product.

If you camera came out of the box sealed, takes good pictures,
serialises your pictures "IMG0001.JPG", what else do you want from a
lowly paid tech. rep.?

If you wanna talk poor service, try Kodak.

T.

I wish to thank all those who provided helpful and insightful feedback and
replies to my post (I will just ignore the idiots who don't have anything
better to do than waste other people's time by posting derogatory and stupid
remarks).

I share Cockpit Colin's, DD's, Thomas Muller's, David Geesaman's, Dave R's
and T's views on customer service and support - for the most part anyway.

I still think companies have the obligation to offer differential support
for their pro, more expensive line of cameras and other photo products.
Every call I have made to the two leading manufacturers of photo equipment
(we know who they are) have left me disappointed as I found myself speaking
with someone who knew less about photography than I do (and I am not a
photographer). But I don't wish to beat this already dead horse.

Thank you again to all the good feedback and replies I have received. The
overall outcome of my newsgroup searches have brought me to some interesting
findings:

1. I have been able to locate a company in Germany that sells software able
to read from the EXIF file generated by the camera the exact number of times
the shutter has been released. This is a specific version for Macs and that
only works on Canon's line of high end cameras (EOS 1D, 1Ds, 1Ds MK II,
....).

2. I have learned about dead pixels and hot pixels. I have also learned how
to count them, the role of firmware in eliminating these dead and/or hot
pixels, software that can review the images and analyze the presence of
these hot pixels, and software that can remove the hot pixels from images
(especially those that have been acquired with longer exposure times).

Best regards,

Joseph

---

Dr. Joseph Chamberlain
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

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On 10/27/05 9:21 PM, in article
, "
wrote:

Canon like any other manufacturer, cannot guarantee the state of a
product after it leaves there factory.

Canon control the length of time it takes a unit to be sold or the
'newness' of a product.

I expect they have no way to differentiate a $1,000 350D to a $10,000
1DS... it's all a serialised product.

If you camera came out of the box sealed, takes good pictures,
serialises your pictures "IMG0001.JPG", what else do you want from a
lowly paid tech. rep.?

If you wanna talk poor service, try Kodak.

T.

"David Geesaman" wrote in message
...

Colin, you're in a thinning group. Yes, there are fuller-service
stores that add value by supporting before and after the sale. Yes, their
prices are higher. But the fact of the matter is most consumers
can't/don't want to pay the extra. Most consumers do their
shopping/evaluation in one place, and then buy for the lowest price
(within reasonable risk). Certainly, the old model is not gone, but it's
waning. Profit margins are going down due to Internet pricing pressures,
and stock (and local sales) is decreasing because of the rapid turnover of
technology. There used to be many camera shops, and now in my area each
small city has just one - and those shops are getting pinched really hard.
So at some point you might find yourself paying much more for that
full-service seller, or not find that seller at all. Do I like it? No,
but as a consumer I have to be aware of the reality of it in order to make
intelligent purchases. And if consumers remain unaware of the trend, they
might not realize what they're missing.

Maybe yes, maybe no. I don't think it's the consumer group that's getting
smaller per sec - I think it's the fact that that the retailers have lost
the age-old-art of selling: Being cheaper than the next guy is the only way
they know how to close a sale - they know nothing about building
relationships - marginal net worth - back ending - host beneficiary
relationships - referral mechanisms - or even how to write an advertisement
that works. They trot out the same (tired) mantra day after day. They all
like to think that they provide good service, but in reality it's only
because they don't know just how much they don't know. How many salemen
would admit to being rude / disinterested / unreliable? Not many - and yet
this is the perception of many of their customers.

I'm involved in the IT "game", which I think is just as cut throat as the
camera market. I charge my time out at $120 per hour (-v- around an average
of $85 per hour for many of my competitors) - and yet I don't get any
objections to my prices. I used to be in the First Aid industry where my
courses cost around 50% more than those of my competition, and yet I don't
recall losing many sales to the "competition". I've been responsible for
running an Aero club - we had to put the prices up around 8% - staff
complained that there would be a backlash from the customers - interestingly
a mistake was make with the accounting system that added another 12.5% on
top of the 8% without staff realising - guess what - none of the customers
even noticed! Study after study keeps revealing that salesmen believe price
to be far more of a consideration than does the customer. So if the
competition advertises a camera for $1299 he advertises it for $1249 - the
customer sees the same camera at two different prices, and guess which one
he goes for - because there was no perceived difference. Many times I too
have tried to go for the cheapest - it usually doesn't take long to discover
that many of them won't take my credit card - or they won't ship to my
country - or they won't send it fedex - or in many other cases they won't
even return emails - all examples of bad service. Guess what? When I find
someone who WILL take PayPal or my CC - who will ship to my country - who
will use Fedex - who takes the time to answer my eMails (even when it's to
say "I don't know - but I'll find out and get back to you tomorrow" (and he
does)) - he gets the order - and guess who I'll be going to first next time.
Was he the cheapest? No.

That's the dynamic many retailers just don't seem to get - by tripping over
each other to be the cheapest they end up "saving" the customer 5%, but cut
their own margins by 30% - Even if they knew what good service was they
wouldn't be able to afford the time to give it.

Am I part of a dying group? I don't know - what I do know is that there are
a hell of a lot more people who think like me than any salesman appears to
be aware of.

Just my 10c worth.

"Cockpit Colin" wrote in message
...
Am I part of a dying group? I don't know - what I do know is that there
are a hell of a lot more people who think like me than any salesman
appears to be aware of.

I think that sums it up pretty well. I think the eBay/Internet pricing
age has put these retailers in a new position, and like you said, they need
to play their cards differently. Most of them point to the price difference
and assume it's the reason - and so they cut staff and pay them less,
offering even less to customers.
Last spring I stopped by a local camera store to pick up my first
non-kit lens. I ended up walking out with a Tamron 75-300 - not fancy, but
in my price range and it served me well. But unfortunately the guy didn't
give me hardly any time of day until I asked, and seemed to care little or
nothing about what I was using it for. He provided little information. I
think he assumed I would be like many others who just bought a 300D -
ignorant and never learning. When I left it was clear why these stores are
a dying breed in my locale.

Dave

"David Geesaman" wrote in message
When I left it was clear why these stores are a dying breed in my locale.

I remember when we got our first "SuperStore" in our little city - local
retailers were crying that it'll mean an "end to their small businesses" -
and that "big business will murder them"

One astute person pointed out that with attitudes like that it would well
mean the end of their little businesses, but if this does happen, it will be
suicide, not murder.

Honestly, I find so many retailers really irritate me - they're simply not
interested in their customers needs. They all assume it's all about price -
persoanlly, I wish they'd all just get back to the basics.